Perfect Love: The Remedy For Disobedience
Commit your way to the Lord;
Trust in Him also and He will do it.
Psalms 37:5 Amplified Version (AMP)
Disconnected
Disobedience to God is costly because it destroys commitment and the ability to reap the benefits of His perfect love. Disobedience also fuels cycles of sin. Have you found yourself going through cycles of sin that cause you to feel disconnected from the Perfect love of God, the Heavenly Father? The type of cycle where you know what is right to do but struggle to actually follow through with doing what’s right. Cycles of sin grow stronger when disobedience creates distance from God. Remember that this is a dangerous cycle for a believer, as it decreases commitment, which in turn leads to a lack of fruitfulness and fulfillment.
Disobedience not only kills commitment but also destroys trust, intimacy, the ability to receive revelation from Him, and, in most cases, self-esteem. And if not mindful, depending on what those in your bloodline have experienced, you can open the door to unbelief and shame (condemnation), which acts as fuel in the cycles of sin. Those who are not believers may sin or disobey and think nothing of it, but when you know how your thoughts, feelings, and actions impact your Heavenly Father. Then you become increasingly aware of how disobedience negatively impacts not just yourself, but the Heavenly Father’s heart. And the heart of the Heavenly Father is that through your obedience, He can ensure that all whom He has predestined to be connected to you experience His perfect love. God is a very merciful Father because He lovingly corrects and heals through His perfect love. In His perfect love, He helps identify the source of the disobedience to end the cycles and restore your commitment in His perfect love.
Disobedience
According to Strong’s concordance, Disobedience or “parakoḗ” in Greek means inattention, hearing amiss, or an unwillingness to hear. Another definition of Disobedience in Greek is “apeítheia,” which means to be obstinate (stiff-necked, stubborn) and opposed to the divine will. In the Old Testament, disobedience is often synonymous with rebellion. Rebellion, or “mārâ” in Hebrew, means to be unpleasant, grievous, provoking, bitter, or to resist God. To resist or resistance in scripture is often synonymous with pride. And pride is haughtiness or having an attitude of superiority to people, places, things, and in worst cases, God. When you knowingly or unknowingly operate in disobedience that leads to rebellion, pride, and haughtiness, it produces rejection and separation from God. In the New King James Version of 1 Samuel 15:23, the verse says, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” Again, God knows how detrimental disobedience, rebellion, pride, and haughtiness can be in destroying perfect love and obedience which is why the King James version of Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” When you fear, honor, respect, and reverence God’s instructions, it leads to experiencing the benefits of committing to His perfect love.
Commitment
Disobedience destroys commitment. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, to Commit means to carry into action deliberately. The Strong’s Concordance defines “commit” H1556 - gālal, as to transfer what is rolled away from oneself to another; commit all thy concerns to God; or “commit to Jehovah whatever thou doest.” Or to give anything that is “heavy” to Him. What are the “heavy things” in your life that you can commit to Him? Some examples of “heavy things” include relationships with people, places you desire to be or go to, and material things that you value. When you hold onto heavy things and place them at the seat of your desires, those things become idols. And idols often increase the desire to obtain them in ways that do not involve the instruction or guidance of God. Committing all your concerns to the Heavenly Father is difficult when you are focused on obtaining things your way. In the King James Version of Proverbs 16:3, it says, “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.” So remember that when you commit whatever you do to God, you allow Him to guide you with the wisdom you need through your thoughts to handle the situation you are concerned about. He knows how to fix, heal, or restore whatever is missing, stolen, lost, or broken. Lastly, remember that no parent desires to see their child in a state of disobedience, doubt, or confusion. So, allow His perfect love to help you strengthen your commitment to Him. He will love you by showering you with his loving wisdom and help you remain committed.
Trust
Disobedience destroys trust. I have experienced this firsthand, and it is not a productive mental state for a believer. Disobedience leads to a decrease in trust in God and eventually destroys your ability to trust yourself. Trust is one of God’s love languages. It’s the way He cares for those He loves. It helps to calm the storms of life that attempt to destroy mental, physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual well-being. The Strong’s concordance defines trust as bāṭaḥ in Hebrew. It means to be confident or sure:—be bold (confident, secure, sure), careless. Or to CONFIDE IN any one, TO SET ONE'S HOPE AND CONFIDENCE upon any one. To be secure, to fear nothing for oneself. To throw oneself or one's cares on anyone. In this instance, the one you were designed to cast your care upon and rest peacefully in is God. However, when disobedience is at work in your life, your trust in God, confidence in hearing His voice, and hope in your ability to boldly follow His voice is negatively impacted. To restore the breakdown of the trust, it is helpful to remind yourself through reading scriptures about the benefits of trusting God. In the Amplified Version of Proverbs 3:8, it says, “It will be health to your body [your marrow, your nerves, your sinews, your muscles—all your inner parts] And refreshment (physical well-being) to your bones.” In the Amplified Classic Version of Psalms 22:4-5, it says, “Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted (leaned on, relied on You, and were confident) and You delivered them. They cried to You and were delivered; they trusted in, leaned on, and confidently relied on You, and were not ashamed or confounded or disappointed.” It is only when you put your full confidence in God and rest in Him through trusting His wisdom, guidance, and instructions that you can recover all that the disobedience of the past has destroyed. Trusting in God is evidence of being perfected in His love.
Intimacy
Disobedience decreases intimacy with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. How? To be intimate with someone, you must first be committed to getting to know them, and then trust is built through spending quality time in their presence. It is the exact same way in our relationship with the Godhead. It is vital to the health of the believer to deepen intimate knowledge of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. However, disobedience creates distance from the Godhead. Remember that disobedience is “hearing amiss or an increased unwillingness to hear.” So, when disobedience festers in your thoughts, feelings, and actions, a number of consequences are experienced. Firstly, condemnation, guilt, and shame increase due to repeated cycles of shame. The enemy will take the opportunity to capitalize on that state of vulnerability by increasing thoughts or feelings of inadequacy, the fear of failure, and doubt/unbelief. And if you believe that you are “bad or wrong” and do not deserve the perfect love of God, the result will end in running from the opportunity to deepen intimacy with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Disobedience also increases lethargy or tiredness in your efforts to deepen intimacy. In the Amplified Classic version of Matthew 11:28, it says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will [a] ease and relieve and [b] refresh [c] your souls.]” What a beautiful promise of Jesus! When disobedience has caused you to struggle with remaining committed, trusting, and focused on building intimacy with the Godhead, know that Jesus has promised to help you rest through spending intimate time with Him so that you can be healed of your disobedience.
Revelation
Disobedience delays revelation and breakthrough. Again, disobedience causes you to hear amiss. So, when disobedience is guiding your thoughts, feelings, or actions, you miss out on receiving instructions for breakthrough or revelation from a lesson God intends for you to learn. How? Remember that disobedience destroys commitment, trust, and intimacy, and often leads to a greater blindness to the truth. And when disobedience has blinded you to the Spirit of truth, you are bound to begin listening to the voices of idols/error (your desires, the world’s desires, or Satan’s desires) that lead you astray. Another side effect of disobedience is a state of being double-minded. When God does speak, second-guessing happens. Doubt is then replaced with faith, which leads to a decrease in peace, clarity, and revelation. Disobedience that breeds double-mindedness ensues when decisions must be made; when destiny helpers are present, they are often overlooked and undervalued due to thoughts and feelings of unworthiness. The remedy is found in the Amplified Classic Version of Psalm 37:5-6, which says, “Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass. And He will make your uprightness and right standing with God go forth as the light, and your justice and right as [the shining sun of] the noonday.” It’s when you commit your thoughts, feelings, and actions to God that you will receive the light (revelation) of His wisdom. In His perfect love for you, know that He desires for you to receive His wisdom to live the prosperous life He planned for you.
Summary of Side Effects
Disobedience destroys commitment to God and hinders your ability to cast your cares upon Him.
Disobedience decreases confidence (trust) in God and increases doubt.
Disobedience destroys intimacy with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
Disobedience destroys destiny by causing delays, setbacks, and failures.
Disobedience leads to a decline in confidence in God, oneself, and others.
Disobedience causes double-mindedness, and second-guessing happens when God does speak.
Disobedience also causes “Groundhog Day” experiences and cycles of sin. Or repeating the same cycles over and over again.
Summary of the Remedy
In His perfect love, God will help you to identify the source of the disobedience.
The perfect love of God leads to increased commitment to God.
When you fear, honor, respect, and reverence God’s instructions, it leads to experiencing the benefits of committing to His perfect love.
To heal from disobedience and remain in His love, intimacy and trust must be cultivated daily through reading, prayer, worship, fasting, and fellowship with other believers.
When you commit your thoughts, feelings, and actions to God, you will receive the light of revelation or His wisdom, which will increase clarity, confidence, and the ability to live out your life in obedience to Him.
Remember that He desires for you to receive His wisdom to live the prosperous life He planned for you.
It is only when you put your full confidence in God that you can rest in Him through trusting His wisdom, guidance, and instructions.
Trusting in God is evidence of being perfected in His love.
Remember, Peculiar Person, that disobedience to the Heavenly Father decreases the ability for you to commit to or trust Him to be God. And when trust is broken, it creates distance from God. Disobedience also increases sin, transgression, and iniquity. However, when you love righteousness and hate wickedness, you receive the joy of pursuing wisdom and knowledge to live a purely righteous life, fully committed to Christ Jesus. Through the pursuit of His righteousness —Jesus' way of thinking, feeling, and acting —you can be perfected in love to remain committed and undo the works of disobedience. Satan’s goal is to get you to operate in unbelief, which leads to disobedience, so that you can experience an identity crisis, be ineffective to the Kingdom of God, and miss out on the assignment God has created you to complete as a Peculiar Person. Disobedience not only destroys your destiny but also the destinies of everyone connected to you! If disobedience has stolen, killed, or destroyed different aspects of your life, then remember that Perfect love is the remedy. Now that you have the remedy, how will you implement it into your daily walk with God?
With Love,
Riva
SALVATION
I’d like to believe that everyone who reads this blog has a personal relationship with Jesus, but if you have yet to make it official and have stumbled upon this blog, know that you can establish that relationship and receive all of His Awesome Promises in a few easy steps.
Pray (speak out loud with your mouth) the Salvation Prayer based on the scripture listed below.
Connect with a local church to deepen your spiritual journey and foster community.
Read Your Bible as often as possible. Click here to discover helpful scriptures and Bible plans to read.
Scriptural Reference
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
ROMAN 10:9-11
Prayer
LORD JESUS, I CONFESS MY SINS AND ASK FOR YOUR FORGIVENESS. I BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD AND DIED ON THE CROSS FOR ME AND THEN ROSE IN THREE DAYS. PLEASE COME INTO MY HEART AS MY LORD AND SAVIOR. TAKE COMPLETE CONTROL OF MY LIFE AND HELP ME TO WALK IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS DAILY BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. THANK YOU, LORD, FOR SAVING ME AND FOR ANSWERING MY PRAYER. IN JESUS’ NAME. AMEN
